An Analysis Of The Death Of Urnamma

Lament is an important part of ancient Sumerian literature,The Death of Urnamma is unique in Sumerian lamentations,its author is unknown,it may be the work of the wife of King Urnamma.On the surface,it seems a legendary poem mourning the death of the king,and it records a series of stories about Urnamma's traveling to the underworld after his death,becoming a judge and mourning his own death,and Inanna standing up to speak out about the inequality of Urnamma.However,its core shows the rich and colorful spiritual world of Sumerian.By using the relevant knowledge of Sumerology,this paper makes some discussions on this relatively complete lament.The introduction of the thesis collates the relevant research on The Death of Urnamma.In the first part,the thesis discusses the background of The Death of Urnamma,including its position in Sumerian literature and Urnamma in history.The second part is the transliteration and Chinese translation of the text.Based on the original text,on basis of referring to several important English versions,I translate the poem from Sumerian into Chinese.The third part analyses the connotation of each line of poetry,and explains its mourning and context.The fourth part analyses the historical value of laments and tries to analyse its literary value,especially its rhetoric,within the framework of modern literature.The thesis holds that The Death of Urnamma has become an outstanding lament by virtue of its adept literary craft,and it is also a representative work of Sumerian literature.At the same time,it contains rich cultural knowledge.It not only provides important information about the cause of Urnamma's death and the historical picture of Sumerian king's funeral,but also shows the Sumerian understanding of the underworld,life and death.It has important reference value for us to understand Sumerian civilization.